Opinion /

World Opinion

Related Topics:
My Take
Macroscope
Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) shakes hands with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 7, 2025. Photo: Pool via Reuters
US-Venezuela conflict

Opinion | Trump’s Venezuela raid a rude awakening for Russia and China

The US abduction of Venezuela’s president showed Russia could do little to protect its ally while China’s economic ties were put at risk.

videocam
Greenland

Opinion | Greenland’s stress test of Nato will ripple beyond the Arctic

US-Venezuela conflict

Opinion | Why the US really wants Venezuela’s oil

videocam
European Union

Opinion | In the tech race, Europe can choose a path that sidesteps US-China rivalry

To avoid technological marginalisation, Europe can play to its strengths by focusing on deployment standards instead of the US-China rivalry.

A participant interacts with a robot at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 7, 2023. Photo: Xinhua
A participant interacts with a robot at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 7, 2023. Photo: Xinhua
United States

Macroscope | Multilateral institutions’ critique of Trump’s actions is too muted

US funding of multinational bodies seems to be keeping their critique muted. The power of the purse should not ensure immunity from criticism.

videocam
China society

Outside In | Plight of Hebei’s freezing elderly shows urgent need for pension reform

The swarming sociability of family life is fading as one-person households and lonely deaths rise. Coping with loneliness is now a life skill.

videocam
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
European Union

Opinion | An internally split Europe can never fully engage China and Asia

The Brussels effect is real but so is Europe’s strategic subordination to the US. For China, and Asia, this means proceeding with pragmatism.

videocam
Illustration: Craig Stephens
Illustration: Craig Stephens
United States

Macroscope | Investors are giving Trump a free pass

Markets, especially bond markets, are meant to be a disciplining force. Their inaction will only embolden Trump to act more recklessly.

videocam
Diplomacy

Opinion | High Seas Treaty will both boost China’s power and hold it accountable

Beijing realises that maritime leadership will be measured not just by fleets and bases but also by who protects the planet’s last great commons.

videocam
Ukraine war

Opinion | Why Russia is gambling on a protracted war in Ukraine

Despite a stagnating economy and mounting casualties on the battlefield, Moscow believes it can wait out Ukrainian and Western resolve.

videocam
4
Ukrainian rescuers work to extinguish a fire at a heavily damaged residential building following Russian drone and missile attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 9. Photo: AFP
US-China relations

As I see it | The Chinese century may already be here

International competition will be won by nations with steady and realistic policies guided by a vision, not the ones indulging in cowboy militarism.

videocam
20
Visitors enjoy the lush, futuristic interior of a shopping centre in Chongqing, on November 13, 2024. Photo: Getty Images
Visitors enjoy the lush, futuristic interior of a shopping centre in Chongqing, on November 13, 2024. Photo: Getty Images
India

Opinion | Is India fuelling an arms race in Asia or closing a deterrence gap?

The challenge for New Delhi is to solve its deterrence shortfall without letting competition harden into permanent confrontation.

US-China relations

Opinion | Trump’s audacious imperialism will only propel China’s rise

Far from setting China back, Trump’s foreign policy is bolstering the case for viewing Beijing as the driver of a more equitable world.

videocam
5
China-EU relations

Opinion | EU-China ties are stuck between interdependence and rivalry

To break the pattern of trade escalations with Beijing, Brussels must move beyond tariffs and invest in its own competitiveness.

videocam
Employees work on the assembly line of vehicles at a workshop of FAW-Volkswagen on December 9, 2025, in Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province. Photo: VCG via Getty Images
Taiwan

Opinion | The US wants to block China’s peaceful reunification. It won’t work

US weapons sales to Taiwan violate the one-China principle but won’t sway Asean or the wider international community.

videocam
11
The Patriot missile system is deployed at a park in Taipei on July 11, 2025. Photo: AFP
The Patriot missile system is deployed at a park in Taipei on July 11, 2025. Photo: AFP
Asean

Opinion | Why US ops in Venezuela have shaken Asia-Pacific’s middle powers

Middle powers fear a return to ‘rules of the jungle’ geopolitics as rival powers carve out spheres of influence.

videocam
US-China relations

Opinion | How Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine’ is escalating US-China rivalry

Maduro’s capture not only challenges China’s influence in Latin America but also signals a bolder US security posture that could reshuffle great-power competition.

videocam
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Artificial intelligence

Opinion | The global AI race: 3 scenarios the world must prepare for

From US-China dominance to regulatory reset or systemic disruption, the AI race is heading towards three very different outcomes.

videocam
A man plays chess with an AI-powered chess robot at the exhibition area of Chinese company SenseRobot at a pre-show event of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, US, on January 5. Photo: Xinhua
A man plays chess with an AI-powered chess robot at the exhibition area of Chinese company SenseRobot at a pre-show event of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, US, on January 5. Photo: Xinhua
Stocks

Macroscope | Why Asian family businesses are pivoting to private equity

Family firms, the backbone of the Asian economy, have tended to be reluctant to go public but are increasingly open to private equity funding.

United States

As I see it | Welcome, world, to the American jungle

Far from deterring China and Russia, the operation signals that brute force, not international law, now defines American action.

videocam
20
North Korea nuclear crisis

Opinion | Maduro’s fate in Venezuela hardens North Korea’s nuclear resolve

It confirms Pyongyang’s belief that leaders seen as thorns in the US side who lack nuclear weapons ultimately fall victim to US intervention.

videocam
Illustration: Craig Stephens
US-Venezuela conflict

Opinion | US invasion of Venezuela no guarantee of hemispheric dominance

By signalling how far it will go to defend its interests in Venezuela, the US might have intensified conflicts closer to home rather than resolving them.

videocam
Ousted president Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela (second from right) and his wife Cilia Flores (second from left) arrive at the Wall Street Heliport in the New York City borough of Manhattan on January 5. Photo: TNS
Ousted president Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela (second from right) and his wife Cilia Flores (second from left) arrive at the Wall Street Heliport in the New York City borough of Manhattan on January 5. Photo: TNS
China stock market

Macroscope | Chinese stocks could be biggest winner of Venezuela fallout

Amid rising fears over an AI bubble and geopolitical strife, China’s push for self-reliance has left it more insulated from global storms.

videocam
Sustainability

Opinion | Why Shein doesn’t have to be the model for the fashion industry

Although the fast fashion label had a bumper 2025 while familiar brands faced collapse, the industry should not conclude that speed and scale are everything.

videocam
United States

Opinion | Why Asia should be concerned about the US attack on Venezuela

Venezuela matters less as a case in itself than as a signal of how energy is being repositioned amid intensifying US-China competition.

videocam
A man walks past a sculpture outside a building of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 17, 2019. Photo: Reuters
Help preserve 120 years of quality journalism.
SUPPORT NOW